Anyone have Verizon fiber optics internet service?

[crayonblue]

We are thinking of switching from Comcast cable internet to Verizon fiber optics internet service. It's cheaper and our cable line keeps getting interrupted. Any opinions?

[HallsofVA]

We live in the Northern Virginia area and we've been on Verizon FIOS for both Internet and TV since February, and just love it! We could have gotten exactly the same level of service that we had with the cable company (Cox in our case for both TV and high speed internet) for less than we were paying. We ended up getting much more in terms of service for only slightly more. We have 15mps Internet (the second level of service they provide in terms of both price and speed), and everytime I've run speed tests on the line it tests pretty true to that speed.

Verizon provided a wireless modem and did all of the connections for us. (We already had a wireless modem, but they said their system was only set up to work with the brand they were providing so we didn't argue, especially since they didn't charge us for it.) So far, we haven't had any performance or outtage issues with either service, while our cable service was hit or miss sometimes.

On the FIOS TV side (don't know if you're interested in that or not) we have 1 HD DVR box, 1 regular HD box, and 1 regular box. Again, no major problems thus far. Our regular box will occasionally lose the connection to Video On Demand, but this is easily fixed by unplugging it and then plugging it back in so it resets itself and the connection. One time our DVR had an issue, but the Verizon customer service guy was able to fix it over the line in a few minutes without any subsequent problems. Our only recurring gripe is the quality of the information in the on-screen guide. We would occasionally see some program descriptions that are lazy or just plain rude in terms of how they described a program. We actually complained about it to Verizon, and haven't noticed any of the really lousy ones since so maybe they found and fired that person.

So, all in all, we've been very pleased, and haven't had any interest in going back to Cox, even though we live across the street from their new HQ building around here! Now I'm just trying to justify switching to Verizon's new whole-house DVR that they're offering!!

[crayonblue]

Thanks! We decided to give it a try so hopefully we will have it installed soon. Do you know if we can have Vonage phone with fiber optics? We have Vonage now and like it.

[HallsofVA]

I believe you can use any VOIP service with them. My husband works for a large mid-west phone company and we get VOIP service through them (though we don't use it much) so we don't have Vonage or any of the other common ones.